Efficacy of enzymes produced by Talaromyces versatilis in releasing energy and amino acids in broiler feeds

Abstract

Exogenous feed enzymes can limit the negative effect of anti-nutrients such as non-starch polysaccharides present in maize and soybean meal based broiler diets, and thereby increase the digestibility and nutritive value of the feed. A study was conducted to determine efficacy of enzymes produced by Talaromyces versatilis in releasing energy and amino acids in broiler feeds, and how that will effect production and slaughter parameters during a 35 day broiler production cycle. The positive control diets were formulated to be lower in energy and amino acid levels than the values used commercially. The negative control 1 diets were further reduced in metabolisable energy, and the negative control 2 diets were reduced in amino acids compared to the positive control diets. The negative control 3 diets were reduced in both metabolisable energy and amino acids compared to the positive control diets. The Rovabio Advance enzyme complex was then added to the positive control, the negative control 1 diets, the negative control 2 diets and the negative control 3 diets. The enzymes supplementation resulted in significant improvements in body weight gain during the final week of the trial when compared to nonsupplemented diets. The addition of the enzyme complex to diets with reduced amino acid levels, also resulted in a significant improvement in feed conversion ratio and a tendency to improve body weight gain compared to the positive control, during the final week of the trial. Enzyme addition to the reduced energy and reduced energy and amino acid negative control diets resulted in slight but non-significant improvements in 35 day body weight and body weight gain over the 35 day period. The reduced energy and amino acid negative control diets, also showed slight improvement in feed conversion ratio over the 35 day period, with the addition of the enzyme. No improvements in any of the production parameters were observed, with enzyme addition to the positive control diets. Therefore, it can be concluded from the present study that enzymes produced by Talaromyces versatilis can improve production parameters of broilers when added to maize and soybean meal based diets with reduced energy and amino acid levels. Enzyme addition to the positive control diet, significantly improved eviscerated carcass yield compared to the reduced energy and amino acid diets. No other significant improvements were observed in any of the carcass parameters evaluated, due to enzyme addition. Therefore, this study did not deliver significant evidence that enzyme supplementation can improve slaughter parameters of broilers.